August 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! After the craziness of July, I'm happy that August was a little quieter — which isn't to say it wasn't busy, but it was a more mundane, routine kind of busy rather than the kind you get when you're celebrating and driving halfway across the country and back. Most of the excitement this month has been on the writing front, so let's jump in there!

Writing!

• The big writing-related news of the month was, of course, the cover and preorder reveal for Illusion's Reign! You can click there to get all the details, but in short: Illusion's Reign is Onora's story and is a prequel to Song of the Selkies. It will release September 27 as part of the Lost Kerchiefs Arista Challenge Group, and it's currently available for preorder on Amazon. I'm very excited, but that probably goes without saying.
• Aside from that, August has mostly been dominated by edits. I spent most of the month working through the big edit/partial rewrite of Illusion's Reign, following guidance from my beta readers. Most of the book was already in pretty good condition and just needed sanding and polishing, so to speak,, but I did end up adding an extra chapter and rewriting large chunks of some other chapters. Then I took a couple days off before jumping in for editing Round 3, which focuses more on word choice and sentence-level issues, and which I finished this past week. Now I'm just waiting for my physical proof copy to arrive so I can do proofreading. All in all, I've been able to stay pretty much on or ahead of schedule, so I'm happy about that!
• Other than Illusion's Reign, I've been working on my next D&D adventure, and I actually made some really good progress . . . thankfully, since we finally got to the start of that new adventure in our last session, which means I can now properly refer to it as the tournament arc. I have enough material prepped to fill the next few sessions, and I think I'm mostly past the hard part of getting the rest put together, so all in all, I'm in a good place . . . as long as I don't get overconfident, anyway.

Reading!

• Yeah, it's been a really light reading month. To be fair, that's partially because The Ward took a solid two weeks — it was a much longer book than I anticipated. It was very good, though! I loved the blend of suspense with found family elements, and the alternate-history world was cool. I'm not sure if this is technically historical fantasy or alternate-world magical realism, but either way, it was very well done. It also satisfied while still making me curious enough to want to find out more about the characters, so I'll absolutely be watching for the next book in the series.
• My other new read of the month was an ARC of Her Fake Superhero Boyfriend, H.L. Burke's upcoming release. It should probably go without saying that I loved this one! Burke's SVR books never fail to delight me, and this one included a take on one of my favorite tropes. Besides that, getting to see more of KC was fun, and I absolutely loved Mira and Mira and KC's dynamic together. They're just so good for each other.
• I do not know why I reread Furiously Happy other than my brain said "I want this" and I said "Ok then." I liked it roughly the same amount as I did the first time around. Nothing much to say here. At least it counts towards my goal of 15 non-speculative-fiction books for the year.
• I continue to enjoy Dracula Daily and Re: Dracula, of course! I have somewhat fallen off keeping up with most of my other books-by-post subscriptions, but I'll catch up eventually . . .
• Finally, I'm currently reading Splintered Mind by W.R. Gingell, since I got my Kickstarter backer ebook copy earlier in the month. I'm about a third of the way in and liking it very much so far!

 Watching & Playing!

• So, the other reason why I read less than usual this month is because my gaming sessions kept going later than planned . . . which anyone else who's played Star Rail will understand, as this month was exclusively taken up by the Penacony storyline, which was a roller-coaster from start to finish. There was much screaming (and also some tears) in the group chat I have with two of my friends who got me into the game.
• Unfortunately, I can't talk a lot about the storyline because it is very twisty and I don't want to spoil anything. I thought I knew most of the major spoilers going in, but I somehow managed to dodge the biggest ones. (That definitely contributed to the screaming.) All I'll say is that it was so good and so hard to put down, and I loved so many of the characters. I think Acheron is my favorite of the Penacony crew — she's an incredibly dangerous woman who has every reason in the world to be a doom-and-gloom edgelord pessimist, but who is instead one of the kindest and most hopeful characters in the game, second only (I think) to Jing Yuan. She's the best. There were a lot of good characters, though.
• So, yes. That was really good, but it was also a really long storyline, and I only just finished it this week (not counting the sidequests). If you play Star Rail and want to talk about it, feel free to message me.

 Life!

• As I said earlier, August was a lot quieter than July, and thank God for that! Outside of writing, my main excitement happened early in the month when my friend Wyn and I met up for an escape room and lunch (and so I could give her back the costume pieces I'd transported to Realm Makers for her). We very narrowly succeeded at the escape room — we had to use all the hints, alas — but we had fun! Plus, it's always nice to get to hang out with friends in-person.
• Also exciting: the D&D campaign I play in reached the climax this month! We've been wrapping up loose ends, gathering allies, and confronting our big bad once and for all. We've also had some really wonderful character moments in the process, including a point at which our ranger had to push back against her (lawful evil) dad's plans for her, giving up some pretty impressive power-ups in the process. At the moment, we're between stages of the climatic battle, but it's been pretty epic so far. Also, my paladin has once again accidentally picked up a cursed item . . . but the curse in question is partially nullified by another of her items, so it kind of turned into an advantage for her. (For the D&D players who were curious: she's under the effects of the Barbarian Reckless feature, but she has adamantine armor, so she has double the chance to get hits, particularly critical hits, on enemies, while they just have a slightly higher chance of getting a normal hit on her. For a paladin fighting a lot of undead, that's a risk worth taking.) I'm still getting a kick out of the fact that she's the only one who seems to get cursed items, though, and that both times, she's gotten the item in question right before a major boss fight.
• Outside of that, life has mostly been business as usual. Work is gearing up for fall kickoff and giving campaign, but the workload so far has been manageable, despite my fears. On the crafting front, I'm starting early on Christmas presents (for once), and I finished several embroidery hoops so they can be displayed. Now I just have to figure out where to put them.
• I did bake some fun things! Specifically, I finally made asiago and sun-dried tomato quick bread, which I've wanted to try for ages. We happened to get some sun-dried tomatoes from a Bible study friend at the start of the month, so I baked a loaf and took it back to Bible study last weekend. It was very tasty, and I definitely ate too much of it (oops). I also made crispy coconut oat cookies, which are essentially ANZAC biscuits from Baking Yesteryear with some extra butter, and those were yummy as well.
• So far, I think only doing one grad school class this semester was the right choice. This time last year, I was already really stressed, even just starting the class. This year has been a lot better, though the fact that I finished the draft and main edit on Illusion's Reign closer to when I intended to also helps. I still do have issues with the lure of busy-ness, especially as I don't like disappointing people or saying no . . . but I'm doing better.

September Plans

• I get to start the month out by seeing my sister (and some other friends) and visiting one of my favorite places, so I'm very much looking forward to that.
• After that, though, we're tackling a very busy and exciting month! As already mentioned, Illusion's Reign releases at the end of September, and while I have a lot done already, there's always more to do: proofreading, uploading final departments, getting stuff ready for online promo, sending out ARCs, and so forth. Hopefully, though, that'll be less stressful this year than it has been in some past years.
• Additionally, September sees the return of the Silmaril Awards! Nominations open on Monday, September 2, and I'll be hosting one of the categories again. Which one? You'll have to wait and see . . .
• No grad school classes this month — that doesn't start until October — but I do need to order textbooks sometime sooner than later. Work will also continue to be busy for the same reasons as it was in August.
• I'm hoping to make it to the Renaissance Festival sometime in September as well, since that's when most of the theme weekends are. If not, though, I'll go in October; it'll be fine. And, of course, September will probably see the ending of the D&D campaign . . . not the group, though; we already have plans for characters for the next adventure! (Which reminds me, I need to finish some backstory stuff for my character. And by "backstory stuff" I mean a family tree and notes on other relationships, because I like coming up with that kind of thing and it makes the DM's job easier.)

How was your August? Any plans for September? Are you planning to go to any fun events — Renaissance Festivals, fall fests, or anything else — this fall? And have you preordered Illusion's Reign yet? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!